Open Mainframe Project Launches Call for Proposals for the 2nd Annual Open Mainframe Summit on September 22-23

Registration for the Virtual Event is now Open

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2021 – The Open Mainframe Project (OMP), an open source initiative that enables collaboration across the mainframe community to develop shared tool sets and resources, today announced plans for its 2nd annual Open Mainframe Summit, the premier mainframe event of 2021. The event, set for September 22-23, is open to students, developers, users and contributors of Open Mainframe projects from around the globe looking to learn, network and collaborate. As a virtual event again this year, Open Mainframe Summit will feature content tracks that tackle both business and technical strategies for enterprise development and deployment.

In Open Mainframe Project’s inaugural event last year, more than 380 registrants from 175 companies joined the two-day conference that featured 36 sessions. Some of the most popular sessions were the Women in Tech panel, COBOL sessions, new mainframer journey and project overview sessions for Ambitus, Feilong, Polycephaly, and Zowe. The event report can be found here and all of the videos can be watched here.

“Open Mainframe Project is becoming the gateway to all educational tools and initiatives that run some of the world’s biggest enterprise systems,” said John Mertic, Director of Program Management at the Linux Foundation. “For our inaugural event last year, we merely dipped our toes in the water as a new summit. This year, we’ll see more change makers speaking about open source innovation, creativity and diversity in mainframe related technologies. We look forward to igniting conversations that are going to positively impact all facets of mainframes.”

Call for Proposals

The Call for Proposals is now open and will be accepting submissions until July 16, 2021. Interested speakers can submit proposals in five tracks such as business overview, Linux on Z, z/OS, education and training and diversity, equity and inclusion. Options for presentations include lightning talks, 30-minute sessions and panel discussions.

A program committee, which will include maintainers, active community members and project leaders, will review and rate the proposals once all the submissions are in. This year, Open Mainframe Project welcomes Greg MacKinnon, Distinguished Engineer at Broadcom, Inc; Joe Winchester, Technical Staff Member at IBM; Kimberly Andersson, Director of Experience Design at Rocket Software; Stacey Miller, Product Marketing Manager at SUSE; and Harry Williams, Chief Technology Officer at Marist College as the 2021 Open Mainframe Summit program committee.

Submit a proposal here: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-mainframe-summit/program/cfp/.

Whether a company is a member or contributor of Open Mainframe Project or is sponsoring the event has no impact on whether talks from their developers will be selected. However, being a community leader does have an impact, as program committee members will often rate talks from the creators or leaders of an open source project more highly. Focus on work with an open source project, whether it is one of the Open Mainframe Project’s 18 hosted projects or working groups that adds value to the ecosystem.

Conference Registration for the online event is $50 for general attendance and $15 for academia. Registration is now open, click here to register.

Thank you Sponsors

Open Mainframe Summit is made possible with support from our Platinum Sponsors Broadcom Mainframe Software, Rocket Software, and SUSE; our Gold Sponsor Vicom Infinity; and our Academic and Community Sponsors CD Foundation and the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS). To become a sponsor, click here.

For more about Open Mainframe Project, visit https://www.openmainframeproject.org/. 

About the Open Mainframe Project

The Open Mainframe Project is intended to serve as a focal point for deployment and use of Linux and Open Source in a mainframe computing environment. With a vision of Open Source on the Mainframe as the standard for enterprise class systems and applications, the project’s mission is to build community and adoption of Open Source on the mainframe by eliminating barriers to Open Source adoption on the mainframe, demonstrating value of the mainframe on technical and business levels, and strengthening collaboration points and resources for the community to thrive. Learn more about the project at https://www.openmainframeproject.org.

About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

###